Warp stop-motion for looms



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

C. RROPER.

WARP STOP MOTION FOR LOO MS.

No 536,968. Pa ented Apr. 2, 1895.

WI/768 see a Innat /$07? (No Modl.) v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. O. P. ROPER.

WARP STOP MOTION FOR LOOMS.

No 536,968. iPagentedApr; 2, 1895.

V jut/3202907? Gizmlesfflopev: 9 w.

CHARLES F. ROPER, OF HOPEDALE,

PATENT OFFICE.

MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE NORTHROP LOOM COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE ANDSACO, MAINE.

WARP STOP-MOTION FOR LOOMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 536,968, dated April 2, 1895.

' Application filed December 7,1893. Serial r... 492,967. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known 'that'I, OHARLEs'F. ROPER, of

Hopedale, county of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in \Varp Stop-Motions for Looms, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters and figures on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object to improv and simplify the harness or warp controlling mechanism of looms.

In accordance with my invention I provide a series of thin metallic heddles, and string them at one end on actuating bars so that the said heddles may be raised and lowered in opposition, to open or form a shed, the ends of said heddles which are not strung on the actuating bars lying perferably side by side and being controlled as to their position by a guide, with relation to which they slide up and down,said guide having, as shown,an openbottom. The actuating bars,they constituting what may be called a harness frame, are, in this instance of my invention, shown as attached to slide rods provided with racks or teeth engaged by pinions on a rock-shaft, so that said bars, as the rock-shaft is moved, are made to move the heddles and form in the warp threads carried by them a suitable shed for the reception of the weft, but this invention is not limited in all instances, to

the means shown for moving the actuating bars. The upper edge of the guide in which the heddles rise and fall are, in this instance of my invention, made also to constitute a support for the underv sides of the warp threads carried into the lower plane or half of the shed, but the parts which support the said threads might be independent of the guide and yet not depart from my invention.

The slots in the heddles where they surround the actuating bars are longer than said bars are wide, thus enabling whichever bar is descendin g to act upon the heddles at the lower ends of the slots when pushing said heddles down to put the warps carried by them into the lower plane of the shed, the descent of the actuating bar being only far enough to let the warp threads in the lower plane of the shed meet certain warp rests or supports to be described, and shoulder. warp in the lower plane of the shed break, so that it did not support the heddle used to put it into that position, said heddle by reason of the slot in its end can drop relatively to its actuating bar, thereby putting the end of the dropped heddle into proper position to cooperate with a stop motion mechanism to be described. The warp threads lying on the warp supports and in position in the lower plane or half of the shed support the weight of the heddles used to put the warps in that position.

In another application, Serial No. 484:,7 23, filed September 4, 1893, I have shown thin metallic heddles slotted both at their upper and at their lower ends, said heddles being each strung on two bars forming part of a harness frame, two suchframes being shown, each adapted to be reciprocated by cams and levers.

In this present invention the lower ends of the heddles are controlled by guides entirely independent of the actuating bars, and, as shown,both sets of heddles are controlled by the same guide.

As my invention is herein embodied, the stop motion mechanism has one bar which co-operates with any dropped heddle, said bar when it strikes a heddle serving to turn a rock-shaft mounted, as herein represented, on the lay, so that said rock-shaft places a dagger connectedto it and extended from the front of the lay, in position to engage a suitable knock-off lever and thus release the shipper handle.

Figure 1 shows in front e1evation,but partially broken out, a sufficient portion of a loom with myimprovements added to enable my invention to be understood. Fig. 2 is a top or plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a partial side elevation and section of the loom represented in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a sectional detail showing the heddles, the guide for their lower ends, and actuator bars. Fig. 5 shows the parts represented in Fig. 4, but in a difierent position, a thread being broken. Fig. 6 is a detail of the friction device co-operating with the dagger; Fig. 6

IOO

The loom frame A, the breast beam A, the whip roll A the lay A the reed A and the cam or cross shaft A are and may be all as common, and the lay may have movement imparted to it in any usual manner.

At the front of the lay I have attached a friction device or detent a, see Figs. 3 and 6, represented as a two-armed spring held in place by a screw a The lay has suitable bearings Z) for the reception of a rock shaft 0 having a dagger c, which, when its point is elevated from the position shown in Fig. 3 strikes the knock-off bar 0 pivoted at c on the breast beam, see Figs. 1 and 2, said knock-off bar resting against the belt shipper handle 0' held in a notch in the usualslot in the plate 0 and pushes said shipper handle out of said notch thus effecting the stopping of the loom through suitable devices, not shown but which in practice may be all as in looms now commonly in use.

The rock shaft 0 has depending arms d which support a bar 8, along one edge of which will preferably be secured a notched plate c.

The loom frame has a suitable cross stand or support B which contains suitable bearings for a rock shaft B, and suitable guides or boxes I) for two sets of slide rodsf, g, the slide rods being shown as toothed for part of their length, see Fig. 3, the teeth of said slide rods being engaged by pinions it fast on shaft B, said shaft as herein shown having also attached to it a gear 7t engaged by a rack 7L2, which, as shown, is carried by an arm h the hub of which is mounted on a stud 7% connected with frame B, said arm h havingconnected to or forming part of it an arm 7L5 provided with, as shown, two roller studs h which are acted upon by a spiral cam 7L7 fast on shaft A The pairof rodsfare connected at their upper ends by an actuating rod f, while the rods g are connected by an actuating rod g. These rods have strung on them the thin metallic heddles f 9 the lower ends of which enter a guide shown as composed of two plates or bars at, m, the rearmost bar m having below it and below the lower edge of the bar m, a bar at notched, as shown in Fig. 2, said bar being a substantial counterpart of the bar 6. The upper ends of the bars at, m are preferably rounded to support the lower sides of the warp threads which are depressed into the lower half of the shed.

The thin metallic heddles have at their upper ends slots 2 through which pass the actuating bars f, g, referred to, the slots being longer than the bars are wide. Each heddle has preferably a substantially round eye 3, said eyes being substantially equidistant from the slot 2 therein, and the warp threads to are threaded through the eyes 3 of the heddles f 9 as shown, the threads being passed through said eyes from one to the other side of the heddles, see Fig. 6, the lower ends of said heddles being shown as put into said guide side by side so that they may touch each other. As the shaft B" is rocked by the mechanism described or by any well known device or equivalent mechanism, the slide rods are reciprocated, one rising as the other falls.

Figs. 1, 3 and at show the heddles in a position to nearly even the warp threads in the shed. Now let it be assumed that the rock shaft B is moved in a direction to lift the slide rodsfand heddles f to put part of the warp threads into the upper plane of the shed. During this movementof barf it will engage the upper ends of slots 2 in heddlesf and lift them positively. As the barf rises, the bar g descends, and the lower edge of said bar g acting on the heddles at the lower ends of the slots 2 therein will cause said heddles to act on the warp threads controlled by them and put them into the lower plane or half of the shed, the descent of the bar g being, however, arrested about as the said warp threads which are being depressed meet the warp supports m, m. If, however, a warp thread put into the lower plane or half of tho vshed should break so as not to hold up the heddle used to put it into the lower plane or half of the shed, said heddle,-it not being supported vertically by either the warp thread or by the actuating bar, will drop, as indicated at the leftin Fig. 5, until the upper end of the slot 2 of the heddle eye meets the top of the actuating bar on which it is strung, such descent of the heddle due to the breaking of the warp thread, causing the lower end of the dropped heddle as shown in said figure, to enter one of the notches of the guide bar m the dropping of the heddle putting its lower end in the path of movement of the bar a, so that as the lay retires from the breast beam, said bar or its notched edge a will strike said dropped heddle, and imn'iediately thereafter the rock-shaft 0 will be turned to put the dagger o in line with the knock-off lever o to act as before described to stop the loom at the next movement of thelay toward the fell of the cloth, the dagger beingkept in the position in which it is put by the rockshaft by or through the detent a, before described.

The only function of the notches in the plates c, m is to prevent twisting the thin flexible heddles.

In Fig. 7 I have shown a modification in which the heddles are offset at their upper ends instead of being made straight, such construction enabling a greater portion of the heddle to be brought into the same line.

This invention is not limited to making the guide for the lower ends of the heddles exactly as shown, but one and the same guide device will preferably serve for both sets of heddles.

By using the toothed bars I am enabled to do away with the shaft and pulleys above the heddles, as shown in my said application, but my invention would not be departed from by moving the actuating bars up and down by frames.

I have herein shown the heddle bars f, g as deriving their vertical motions to open the shed by or through slide rods,but this inven tion is not limited to the employment of such slide rods, as instead I may employ any other usual or suitable mechanism for imparting vertical motion to said bars; and while excellent results are attained in imparting mo" tion to the heddles by letting one overlap the other, yet this invention is not in all instances limited to such particular location of the heddles one with relation to the other.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a loom, a heddle frame having a rod or bar, and a series of metallic heddles adapted to slide vertically thereon independently of the vertical movement of the latter, combined with a guide for the lower ends of said heddles, said guide being independent of said bar, a feeler to meet the edge of a'dropped heddle and devices to move the feeler-substantially as described.

2. In a loom, a heddle frame having a rod or bar, a series of sheet metal heddles adapted to slide vertically thereon independently of the vertical movement of the latter, and a guide for the lower endsof said heddles, said guide being independent of said bar and having cooperating with it a notched bar to receive the ends of the dropped heddles, combined with a feeler movable in the'direction of the length of the warp, said feeler also said bar, said heddlesbeing unconnected with said frame at their lower ends, combined with astationary guide for the lower ends of said heddles, a feeler to engage a dropped heddle held by said guide, and devices to move said feeler to and fro in the direction of the length of the warp, to operate, substantially as described.

4. In a loom, two heddle frames having each a heddle bar, two series of metallic heddles having holes for the warp threads and hung on said bars, and a guide independent of the heddle frames and surrounding and guiding said heddles at or near their lower ends, said guide being extended upwardly to serve as a rest for the warp threads brought into the lower plane of the shed, substantially as described.

5. In a loom, a heddle, a bar on which it is free to slide vertically to a limited extent, a

lay, a feeler carried thereby and adapted to engage a dropped heddle, and devices actuated by said feeler to effect thestiopping of the loom when a heddle drops due to a broken by actuating bars, means to reciprocate said rods, a set of metallic heddles having warp thread receiving eyes, and slottedat their upper ends and strung on each of said bars,

. combined with a stationary guide independent of the said actuating bars to receive and guide the lower ends of the heddles of the different sets, and a feeler to co-operate with the dropped heddles to effect the stopping of the loom, to operate, substantially as described.

8. In a loom, a plurality of pairs of recipre-g5--- cating slide rods, each pair being connected by actuating bars, means to reciprocate said rods, a set of metallic heddles for each of said bars, said heddles having warp thread receiving eyes and slotted at their upper ends and strung on said bars, and a guide independent of said actuating bars to receive and guide the lower ends of the heddles of the different sets, combined with a feeler to co-operate with any heddle of either of said sets of heddles which may drop by reason of the breaking of the warp threads, substantially as described.

9. In a loom, a plurality of pairs of reciprocating slide rods, each pair being connected by actuating bars, means to reciprocate said rods, a plurality of sets of metallic heddles, each heddle having warp thread receiving eyes 3 and slotted at their upper ends'and strung on said bars, combined with a stationary guide to receive and guide the lower ends of both said sets of heddles, and with afeeler bar, a lay, a rock-shaft carried by the lay, a dagger on said rock-shaft, and a knock-off lever and shipper handle, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES F. ROPER.

Witnesses:

GEO. OTIs DRAPER, R. A. COOKE. 

